Caregivers such as nurses and other staff in a hospital ward, hospital wing, or other healthcare facility generally work under high pressure, high stress and long hours. These caregivers should be highly responsive to patient needs, in non-emergency as well as emergency situations. Due to ever-increasing costs of healthcare and other economic practicalities, efficient deployment of the caregivers in a healthcare facility is desired, particularly at night when the number of caregivers is typically maintained at a minimum. Nevertheless, optimizing efficiency is of secondary importance relative to the primary objective of providing a high level of healthcare.
One approach to maximizing the efficiency of caregivers such as nurses in a hospital facility involves the use of a location and identification system to continuously monitor the location of the caregivers. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,385 to White, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a personnel locating system where individuals to be located wear transmitters, and each transmitter transmits a signal which corresponds to the identity of the wearer. This information is relayed to and displayed at a central control unit. The information may also be displayed at remote terminals, used to control access to equipment or locations, or conveyed via a telephone interface to a telephone switching network to call the nearest telephone or to page the wearer of the transmitter. Additionally, newer communications systems provide even more than the relatively simple locating and telephoning features disclosed in White. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,412 to Novak et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,038 to Ulrich et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,223 to Gallant et al., all of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose the use of communications systems that integrate several aspects of personnel and equipment locating, call/code enunciation, and equipment status information.
As alluded to above, caregiver (e.g., nurse) to patient ratios continue to decline due to increasing economic pressures. Many healthcare facilities are exploring ways to reduce the non-value added activities of the caregivers (e.g., nurses) in order to maintain quality care while reducing the number of caregivers per patient. Computers hold promise for aiding the caregivers to work more efficiently by eliminating activities previously performed by caregivers and/or reducing the amount of time associated with the performance of caregiver activities. However, conventional uses of computers in the above locating and identification systems only supply the caregivers with information and at the most alarms indicating possible adverse events. Computer systems need to become aware of activities within the hospital environment if they are to reduce employee workload. To enable this evolution in computing technology, Activity Based Tracking (“ABT”) is needed. ABT is, in a general sense, the real-time connectivity of information (i.e. location, time, and device activity, etc.) to detect the occurrence of a specific activity for which a known response is acted upon by an automated system.
Generally speaking an ABT system performs better if the ABT system includes a locating and detection system with a relatively high location resolution. In other words, the instances in which the ABT system provides value to the caregiver are increased if the ABT system is able to determine the location of caregivers, patients, equipment, etc. with high resolution. Current tracking/locating systems used in hospitals are based on IR/RF in which the location of the fixed receiver determines the location of the tagged object. Utilizing this strategy, to increase the locating resolution (e.g., to move from being able to determine which room a caregiver is in to being able to determine that the caregiver is next to a patient's bed), additional receivers with limited range must be employed.
Pursuant to a first embodiment of the present invention there is provided a badge for tagging objects for use with a locating and/or activity based tracking system. The locating and/or activity based tracking system includes a master station and absolute reference point sensors that are in communication with the master station. The absolute reference point sensors are configured to receive tag ID information from the badge whenever the badge passes within a predefined range of the absolute reference point sensor. The absolute reference point sensors provide the master station with the received tag ID information and information identifying the particular absolute reference point sensor that received the tag ID information. From this received information, the master station determines a reference location for the badge and the associated tagged object that corresponds to the absolute reference point sensor that received the tag ID information. The badge further includes a displacement sensor that generates signals indicative of motion and heading of the badge. The transmitter periodically transmits the motion and heading information to the master station which enables the master station to update the location of the object in relation to a previously known location for the object.
Pursuant to another embodiment of the invention there is provided an activity based tracking system that aids a caregiver in preventing an extubation of a patient. In general, a master station of the activity based tracking system uses information received from badges and equipment sensors to detect whether a patient who is using a ventilator is lying near or against a side rail of a bed. If the master station determines that a patient who is using a ventilator is lying near or against a side rail of a bed, then the master station causes a extubation prevention notification to be sent to the caregiver assigned to the identified patient.
Pursuant to another embodiment of the invention there is provided an activity based tracking system that aids a caregiver in preventing a patient from falling from bed. In general, a master station of the activity based tracking system uses information received from badges and equipment sensors to detect whether a patient is lying near or moving toward a bed side rail that is in a down position. If the master station determines that a patient is lying near or moving toward a bed side rail in the down position, then the master station causes a fall prevention notification to be sent to the caregiver assigned to care for the identified patient.
Pursuant to another embodiment of the invention there is provided an activity based tracking system that aids in gathering data for a simulation modeling tool. In general, a master station of the activity based tracking system continually receives information from badges, equipment sensors, and absolute reference position sensors. If the master station determines that the information is associated with an activity for which the master station has been preconfigured to gather data for later simulation modeling, then the master station records the received data. The master station further tracks the length of time to complete activities and the length of time tagged objects participate in the activity.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be evident from the following description of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.